


The Dreamer | NCT

by lilchikn



Category: K-pop, NCT (Band)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25312321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilchikn/pseuds/lilchikn
Summary: What if you're whole life is a dream?What if you can go deeper into dreams and enter dreams within dreams?Nine boys live a simple life in their clubhouse when one day a man calling himself the "experimenter" knocks on the door. From then on, the boys are thrown into a whole new world of dreams, conspiracies, and mysterious memories. And they end up unlocking a world that none of them were expecting to find."All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." - Edgar Allen PoeA NCT fanfic based on all of their MV's, albums, teasers etc. References will be listed at the end of each chapterUpdates every week
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. Prologue: Room 010

Johnny turns the dial back twelve degrees so that the video on the screen rewinds to exactly one hour and forty-seven minutes. After getting the position perfect he jots down his final observation and snaps his log book shut. He leans back in his chair and sighs at the thought of having to file this week's books away. The most tiring part of his job was without question visiting the library. At least once he finishes, then it'll finally be his day off. He clicks off all eighteen of the screens and piles up the set of log books in his arms before snapping off the lights for the monitor room.

His boots click on the tile floor as he journeys down the maze of hallways. He comes to a stop in front of a keypad, letting the scanner light up his face in neon blue grid lines. It beeps with approval and three metal walls, one after another, rumble open. On the other side is another seemingly endless hallway with doors scattered along it, numbers beside each one.

He usually doesn't give much thought to the pods, but he hesitates in front of number 010. The strange pink glow that escapes through its window is getting brighter. He already submitted a report to headquarters about it, but they never responded. If they don't think it's an issue, then it probably isn't.

Still, he'd never seen any of them give off light before.

After what seems like an eternity Johnny finally reaches the last door with the bold red word LIBRARY painted across it. He struggles to open it while trying not dropping any of the files but once inside the lights slowly start flickering on.

It was less of a library and more of a warehouse stretching hundreds of feet long and wide, with shelves spanning that entire distance. Bulky servers blink from the bottom rows and boxes of files fill the rest of the shelf space. His shoulders fall. The folder for 018's glares at him from the top of the pile in his arms. 

"Shelf 287 row 74", he murmurs.

Just think of sleeping in tomorrow Johnny. You can do this.

He shakes his head and with a groan, goes off to file.


	2. Vision

A young boy lays in the sand feeling the heat of the red sun on his belly. His white tunic blowing in the breeze.

"You'll turn pink if you stay under the sun that long, child" A lady with a grey scarf wrapped around her head and a matching grey dress hovers above him with a smile on her face.

The boy latches on to her ankle and smiles back. "Stay with me. It feels so good, mama."

"I need to head to the village before sunset. And you have to come with me. Get up, come on."

The child reluctantly peels away from his spot and follows after his mother, dragging a stick behind him as they walk. The lady looks back with a grin "I almost forgot, but one of the older kids at the market told me to give this to you." She fishes in her satchel before pulling out the prettiest glider the kid had ever seen. The kid's face lights up as he grabs the toy, a glider made from parchment paper with a string tied to the end. "Can I play with it?"

"Only if you don't fall behind. We still have a long way to walk."

He places the glider in between his fingers like he saw the other kids do and points it up at the sky. The end of the string looped around his thumb. He lets the wind take it and it soars in front of them, dipping and swirling in the wind currents. He keeps playing with his glider as they journey through the desert. This time though he takes the string off his finger so that it could soar as high as possible. He aims, pulls back and lets it go.

It sails above him. But then it takes a turn.

It goes up and up and up without falling down like before. As if something is pulling it into the clouds.

"Mama?" The boy calls out, but suddenly the winds start shifting around him, picking up speed.

A roaring noise floods his ears and his voice is lost in the chaos. His hair flies around wildly as the sand started to swirl around him. He sees the silhouette of his mother as she turns and runs toward him. His name on her lips.

And then she disappears behind the wall of sand.

***

Ten jolts awake, sitting straight up. The wheat around him swaying back and forth under the moonlight. A field? Last, he remembers he was taking an afternoon nap in the house. And that vision. This is the fourth time he's seen it. He leans back and looks at the stars winking from above. It didn't feel like the dreams the experimenter had shown him. It felt more... like a memory

He's shaken from his thoughts when a sudden bright light blinds him.

"There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you!" A familiar voice calls out from beyond the light.

"Can you get that out of my face?"

"Oh, sorry." Haechan lowers the flashlight, his rust colored hair swinging in the breeze as he looks down at Ten.

Ten gets to his feet and takes a good look at the field that he was just lying in. "How long was I gone this time and, where are we?"

"You've been gone three days." Haechan points to his left. "See that tower in the distance? That's the ruins."

"Then we're about eleven miles away"

"9.35 miles actually" Haechan waves the brass locator in his hand with the number 9.35 on its tiny screen. "You're lucky I have a sixth sense for finding you, hyung. All the other guys gave up looking for you after a day. But I had a feeling you'd be around here."

Ten shook his head at the younger boy and begins to part his way through the golden grain. "You were probably just running away again and found me by accident."

"Wow, really? That's what you have to say to me after I just saved you?" Haechan jogs up to Ten who is already far ahead. "Next time I'm not going to try to find you. I'll just let you disappear forever, trapped in some random field."

He ignores Haechan's chatter and continues on in silence.

Ever since that Monday one month ago, when that guy in all black calling himself the experimenter showed up at the door to their clubhouse. Ever since then, things have been getting strange.

It's been four times now that Ten has disappeared, had that mysterious vision and woken up in a strange location. This time was the longest he's ever been gone. What happens next time? Will he vanish for a week? A month? There wasn't anything that Ten hated more than not knowing what might happen. And ever since the experimenter started sharing his tricks, he's no longer sure of anything in his life.

Just thinking about it all made him uneasy.

***

The sunrise just begins to stretch across the grassy horizon. Mark is perched at the top of the clubhouse chimney, holding the binoculars to his eyes when he spots two familiar silhouettes in the distance. A smile spreads across his face.

He slides down the roof, latchs onto a nearby tree branch and gracefully climbs his way down until his tennis shoes hit the dirt floor. "You came back" He says as he runs up to the two.

"I found him actually." Haechan lifts his eyebrows at the showoff but Mark doesn't even glance at him and instead walks right past him, embracing Ten in a big hug

Rude, but not unexpected. Maybe Haechan shouldn't have eaten Mark's last slice of cake but he shouldn't have left it out on the table either. He'll have to get over it at some point.

Ten looks on in relief as he gets closer to the worn brick walls of the clubhouse. He runs a hand along the wooden doorway and steps in with Mark leading the way. Three of the other guys are lounging around on the scraggly leather couches, twisting playing cards between their fingers. Taeyong sits on the stairs as usual and stares down at Ten.

"Look who's back fellas." Mark announces.

Yuta, Taeil, and Winwin nod his way but Ten can tell they only care about playing their game. Not that he really cares. He takes a spot at the table with Mark and leans back to watch the card game too.

Yuta sits in the middle, flicking an ace of clubs between his fingers. Once. Twice. Three times, Four times. They all watch his movements closely, but on the fifth spin the card fully disappears. Yuta holds his empty hands up to his audience. Taeil and Winwin shake their head in confusion. Yuta pauses for dramatic effect before snapping his fingers and pointing every one's attention to the ceiling. From thin air a single card appears above their heads and floats down like a feather before gently landing on the coffee table, face up.

The ace of clubs.

It looks like Yuta's gotten better at that trick in just the short time since he's been gone.

Ten can't fully relax with the others though because Taeyong's gaze had never left him since the moment he walked in the door. Finally, the leader speaks up from his spot on the stairwell. "You missed a visit, yesterday."

"Did I?" Ten shrugs it off.

"So are you leaving on purpose or just have awful timing?" Taeyong asks coldly

"Don't know."

"Hey, he just got back. Do you have to interrogate him?" Haechan speaks up moving Taeyong's glare away from Ten.

"And you." Taeyong points a finger at the youngest. "You don't think I noticed that you ran away _and_ took my locator?"

"W-what? Was this yours?" Haechan laughs unconvincingly, fishing out the brass device from his pocket and handing it over. The number on its screen reading zero.

"If you take that without asking again, you'll be in serious trouble. The experimenter gave this to me to keep safe."

"Can you stop treating the experimenter like some kind of God. The only thing he is, is suspicious." Yuta spoke up from the living room, still spinning a card in his fingers until it disappears.

"Really? You're the one playing around with the magic he showed us."

Yuta presses his lips together and the playing card appears again from thin air, falling to the floor, bent and crumpled. The boys who were watching the show start booing.

Some part of Ten wishes he stayed in the fields. The atmosphere somehow always gets hostile when Doyoung isn't around. Which reminds him. Ten leans back to face Taeyong. "Where are the other two?"

Taeyong tilts his head upstairs. "They've been having it rough. Jaehyun has spent all day in bed again and now Doyoung... his condition is just strange."

"Is he sick too?"

He just shakes his head. "If you were here then you would know. Just see for yourself."

Ten's mind starts racing with questions as hesitantly gets up, Mark following silently behind.

They climb up the narrow stairs passing Taeyong, a painful sounding whine echoing from upstairs. Ten reaches for the light switch, but Mark stops him, offering no explanation. With no other option Ten uses his hands to move around in the dark corridor, relying on the weak light streaming from under Jaehyun's door. He'll make sure to visit Jaehyun later but if Jaehyun's nausea is anything like the last session, then he won't want anyone trying to talk to him for the next two days. The soft whine gets a little louder as they head down the hallway toward Doyoung's room.

Ten gives a slight knock on the door and the whine stops. "Hey. It's me, Ten. You alright?"

"One moment." His voice is quiet but not as weak as Ten expected.

Mark and Ten wait as each of seven locks are unlocked one by one. The door slowly swings open and they step inside. It's pitch black until Doyoung swipes a match and begins lighting up the candles on his desk. "Sorry guys, the fluorescent is just too much for me."

He turns around and Ten, even in the dim room, could see the grey bags under his eyes, and the thin wrinkles on his forehead that he didn't remember him having before. "Taeyong said you weren't doing so well."

"Well, it's not really that bad. I'm okay, I guess."

"That sounds convincing." Mark folds his arms across his chest.

"I don't know how to explain it. I don't feel sick like Jaehyun. I'm just. It's like I'm getting more...sensitive to things. To sounds and lights and..." He doesn't finish the sentence, but his eyes wander off like he's recalling something.

The way he doesn't blink often and the shadows that catch along his thin face. It brings back a feeling of uneasiness. This all started ever since that guy calling himself the experimenter showed up. Ten's strange disappearances, what's happening to Jaehyun and Doyoung.

"You shouldn't go on another dream session."

Doyoung looks up swiftly at Ten

"I was thinking about it all as I was walking back here. But this experimenter guy just showed up out of nowhere. And ever since he came weird things have been happening. I can't help but get a bad feeling about all of this. I'm thinking about stopping the sessions. Maybe you should too."

Doyoung shakes his head and lowers his voice. "No, we have to keep doing this. Tell me, what do you guys remember doing every day before the experimenter showed up?"

Mark and Ten exchange looks. "Just hanging out around the clubhouse, I guess."

"That's all I remember too. We didn't use to do much. We just sat around day after day. But now, all of us are creating, thinking, and playing around." Stopping his pacing, Doyoung stares down at the camcorder on his nightstand. "I don't think we should go back to where we were before. That life where every day is the same."

Ten wants to argue but he can't find a good enough reason. It just doesn't sit well with him. This entire thing. If it's making his friends like this, it just can't be good.

"I kinda agree with Do." Mark speaks up. "I want to find out what's going on and stopping the sessions would send us back to zero. I get what you're anxious about, Ten, but we need to gather data first. Find out who this experimenter really is."

Ten could already see Doyoung's point. Mark just a few weeks ago didn't talk about things like data and didn't try to reason with any of them. He didn't say much actually. In fact, Ten can't remember himself saying much either.

"We're all changing. Getting smarter, I think." Pulling a notepad out of his coat pocket, Doyoung hands it over to Ten. "This is where I write a daily journal. Just look it over when you get some time and see the difference in the entries since the experimenter came. My descriptions get more detailed and complex as days go by. The next session is in one week and I want you to come with us again. Please, Ten."

Ten reluctantly nods in agreement but his mind still flashes warnings signs about this whole thing even as he hears the rest of Doyoung's explanation, even as sees Do's smile disappear behind the door, and even as all the seven locks click closed, leaving him and Mark in the dark hallway again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference video: NCT The Origin


	3. Dream Sessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Experimenter comes to visit

Johnny leans back in his chair, feeling the full effects of the IV. He looks around his pod, a bare room with only a few bio monitors hooked up to the electrodes on his chest and forehead. With each passing second the room starts blur around him. His heart rate pounds in his chest as he clenches to the arm rests of the chair. Why does he still get anxious? He's been through this more than just a few times. He takes a deep breathe to relax and stares forward at the blank cold wall across from him, watching it melt away with his fading vision. Then his eyes close.

He opens them again to a rusty wire gate creaking in the breeze.

Johnny stands in front of the ruins. The end of his long black trench coat swinging just above the ground. He slightly adjusts the brim of his matching black hat to the position he prefers and walks into the yard. The grassy hill in front of him is littered with the remains of collapsed farm houses. He bends down by some leftover boards and places his hand flat on the dirt. A briefcase begins to materialize from the ground beneath his fingers. Today he decides to make it out of black leather to match his outfit. He undoes the clasps and counts all the inventory inside to make sure he's ready for today's session. Eleven syringes, eleven memory cards and the tapes. Perfect.

There's really no point in wasting time walking the long distance so Johnny pictures the two-story clubhouse in his mind and in a second is transported in front of the clubhouse doorway. One of the boys, Winwin, stumbles back in surprise when Johnny suddenly appears.

The door to the clubhouse is open as usual, but Johnny knocks on the doorframe anyway because he is a man of good manners.

Nine boys cautiously emerge from their rooms, all of them standing slightly behind the boy they call their leader. It looks like they're still suspicious of him. Maybe in the next few months they'll get more used to his appearances.

"Good evening, guys. I'm here for your fifth dream session. I hope you have all been well since last time." Johnny moves into the living room as the boys split to make way for him.

"Taeil." He points to the eldest who is shocked that his name was called. "Can you bring all the camcorders that I left here and begin setting them up?"

He flips out a cassette tape from the briefcase, sliding it into the tape player on their fireplace mantle.

"For this session we'll start by playing the tape from headquarters, then log your recent experiences, and finally, as you've all have probably been waiting for, we'll enter the dream state." He spreads his arms dramatically, but none of the boys respond. They just keep staring wide-eyed. One of them breaks the silence with a dry cough.

Johnny tries not to let his smile drop. He really hopes that as they keep doing sessions they'll start getting a little more... intelligent.

Though out of the corner of his eye he sees one boy with a twisted expression. Was it anger? This dark-haired boy wasn't there at the last session, but he was the one subject that Johnny specifically wanted to keep an eye on. Ten.

What was so special about him? Why him out of everyone?

"Umm, experimenter" Taeil pokes Johnny's shoulder, shaking him from his thoughts. "I finished setting up."

"Good. Good." Johnny mutters and turns his attention back toward the whole crew.

"This tape comes directly from Headquarters. The people I work for and thus the people you all work for too. They provide specific instructions and key information about your situation. I know that I haven't done the best job at explaining why I'm here, but like I said on the first day I met you all, the best explanation is for you all to simply figure it out as we go along. These tapes should help a little bit though."

He settles in the corner by Jaehyun waiting for the tape to roll.

Screeching static fills the room for a few seconds before the tape clicks and a happy tune starts to play. Johnny could quote the following slogan word for word. _"One of the collective, a member of family, an employee at Force Co."_

Each memo, computer message and simulation that he's been raised on always started with that phrase.

The tune stops, and the narrators voice begins

_"Reality is a world with limits. This dream lab breaks limits in reality. Sleep consists of five stages. Stages 1-4 are called REM sleep. Stage 5 is called non-REM sleep. Most dreams are experienced in REM sleep..."_

After ten minutes of playing the cassette clicks to a stop. Johnny pops it out and slips it back into his briefcase.

"I hope that helps some of you understand." Though he can obviously tell that they seem even more confused than before. But no time to dwell on that. "Now let's get started with the logs."

***

"Very nice." The red-light flashes on the camera as the experimenter places it just in front of Yuta. "Can you explain again what has been going on.

Yuta picks up his playing cards and lifts them to the camera, giving the details of his disappearing trick.

When he finishes talking, the experimenter starts adding his closing statements to the recording "007, Yuta, has been showing some promise with bringing dreams into reality. A manipulation of existence is evident in the card tricks he's been doing. He can make a card disappear by sending it to the dream world and make the card re-enter reality whenever he wills. He has reached Phase 4."

The experimenter ends the recording, switching out the memory cards for ones that read 004. Jaehyun replaces Yuta in front of the cameras, looking confident and healthy, a big contrast from a week ago when he could hardly stand up without feeling sick. Jaehyun begins to recite his experiences just like we were instructed to. The three camcorders angled so that both his profiles and a full-frontal view are captured.

The experimenter then adds the last bit of commentary to the video. "004, Jaehyun, is not adjusting well to the immersion into the different dream levels. Side-effects include nausea, lethargy, and lack of appetite. Subject is still in Phase 3 with no solid estimate on when he will arrive at Phase 4."

Jaehyun moves out the way for a boy wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. "Just tell the camera what's been happening to you after you enter the dream state, Doyoung." The experimenter instructs

Doyoung shifts in his seat and has a moment of hesitation that Ten catches. But he quickly covers any sign of nerves up and starts sharing to the camera about his recent condition.

"002 is also a subject that has shown advanced levels of adjustment to the dream immersion stage. Though subject is not showing any sign of mixing dream and reality, yet. Increased sensitivity is one of the subject's side-effects and is expected to calm down with time. Phase 4 is likely to be reached in the next few sessions."

The chair sits empty for a second before Ten moves into position. All three lenses glimmer at him, waiting for him to speak up.

"I spend my days playing out in the fields or by the ruins. Nothing out of the ordinary." Ten stops after the short account.

"You were absent from the last session, is there a reason for that?"

"I forgot" Ten answers simply.

"And are you experiencing anything strange after the dream immersions?" The experimenter prods but Ten is silent.

There's no reason not to trust this guy but there's no reason to trust him either. Something deep inside Ten just screams to keep those visions a secret.

He shakes his head "no" and the experimenter begins his closing commentary on Ten. "010 Has no side-effects from entering the dream states. Though he is not capable of manipulating existence yet. Phase 3."

Ten gets up to let Taeyong sit down and takes a spot beside other boys who finished their logs. He can feel their curious stares. They all knew he's been disappearing often and they all just watched as he didn't say a word about it. Only one of them has to say something to the experimenter for his lies to be exposed but none of them did. They all simply stood in silence.

Though there was a part of him that wonders if he should've said something about his visions and disappearances. Maybe the experimenter could've helped him.

Taeyong left the chair after his log and the experimenter takes out the last memory card, placing them all back in his briefcase.

"Now time for the fun part." Yuta whispers while playfully nudging Ten in his side.

Though he couldn't see that Ten was clenching his hands together, his breathing unsteady and nervous.

Ten trails at the back of the line as the boys follow the experimenter out of house. They all gather around a metal hatch in the backyard, nestled between the bushes and the fence. Ten and the others had always known about this door, but they never had the idea to open it. It wasn't until the experimenter had shown them, that they had first entered the basement. Today it's damp and humid just like the first time they came down here, made out of cold concrete from floor to ceiling. There were only nine cots, two TV screens and a metal table in the middle of room. The experimenter moves toward the nine syringes laying on the table while the boys find their respective cot.

Ten always found it strange that none of the boys, even the ones with serious side-effects, don't hesitate to enter the dream state. But who was he to question them. As much as he's been suspicious of this whole thing, and even after telling Doyoung and Mark that he probably won't go on another dream session, here he is laying face up on the cot as the experimenter sticks a syringe into his arm.

He is such a weak-willed person. If he couldn't avoid going on one dream-session how does he expect himself to figure out all the strange things going on. He doesn't know what he should be doing, honestly. Actually, all he knows is that the room is growing darker and that it's getting a lot harder to keep his eyes open...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Refer to NCTmmentaries – specifically 1 and 5 - for any headquarters tape


	4. The 7th Sense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys enter another dream but this time things don't go as planned...

A cool damp leaf brushes against Ten's arm and he jerks backward in fright hitting the glass wall behind him with a thump. Rubbing the back of his neck from the impact, he takes a minute to soak in his new environment. Four glass walls loom around him, trapping him inside a tight space with only large vines and exotic plants tangled beside him.

Don't worry. He assures himself. Don't worry, Ten, it'll be okay.

It's been awhile for him, since he's been in a dream session, so he forgot how jarring the experience was. His body was on full alert, his heartbeat pounding in his head.

The world outside of the glass case was red, blood red and stretched for miles.

"Ten?" Relief washed over Ten, when he turned to see Jaehyun's face on the other side of the box.

"I'm trapped." He mouths. The glass muffling his voice

Jaehyun nods knowingly and puts his finger to the glass, drawing a human sized square. The spots where his finger touches started to glow. When he finishes drawing the last line, the square of glass drops to the ground carving out an opening for Ten to escape.

"Are you okay?"

Ten nodded still trying to calm himself

"Once you relax, you'll find that you can do so much here. The limit is really just your imagination." Jaehyun was smiling but Ten recognizes those lines from the tape recording they listened to earlier. He seems like he really believes those words but to Ten they didn't seem optimistic just scary.

"I found a few of the others that way," Jaehyun nudges forward. "They're in the white zone.

"White zone?"

"Yeah, you'll see."

"Whose dream?" Ten asks.

For the first time Ten sees a sword slung over Jaehyun's shoulder. He must have made that.

"Taeil's"

Ten trails behind Jaehyun and studies the palm of his hand. He imagines a small pocket knife and watches as the outline of the knife appears in a bright golden glow. He quickly dismisses the image and the outline dissolves in his fist. He can't bring himself to do it.

"See that." Ten follows Jaehyun's point. The red tint of the world around him shifts seamlessly into a stark white. The colors on his and Jaehyun's outfit brighten to dazzling yellows and blues.

"So, this is the white zone."

"Jae, Ten!" Taeyong sits on a white block, his hair, an icy shade of grey, pokes out of his yellow beanie. "Taeil and the rest are over here." The other boys are gathered around each other, all of them focusing on the eldest. Taeil pulls his sleeve up to show a golden eye marking on his skin which means he's the host of this dream. "It's my first time that you are all inside my dreams." He breaks out in a large smile and Ten notices the yellow of his shirt growing brighter. There's no mistaking that.

After a few sessions he noticed that while the major settings of the dreams aren't easy to control, the dream host usually can change the environment with his emotions. It looks like the happier Taeil is, the more vivid this place gets. He tries not to think about what happens if the opposite emotion takes over. We really are in over our heads. Just a mismatch group of boys playing with something beyond their understanding.

"Look at this, guys." Haechan wills an entire cake into existence, silverware, plates and all. "This one's for Mark. Maybe he'll get over his petty grudge now." Mark just pushes past him and cuts himself a slice, taking a seat on the ground. "Ugh." He spits it back onto the plate. "This is disgusting. Did you even try to make it taste good or did you only focus on the visual?"

Haechan winces. "I didn't know I had to imagine the flavor too."

"All this power and using it to make cake?" Taeyong shakes his head and holds up his hand. Two locators appear in his palm, and he hands one to Taeil. "I'm gonna explore but I don't think it's a good idea to be too far from you, since you control this place." He holds up the screen. "If my locator is separated from yours, it'll show how far we are from each other."

He picks up a metal hammer that was lying at his feet. "Anyone coming with?"

Jaehyun, Haechan, and Doyoung move toward Taeyong. Winwin, Mark, and Yuta vote to stay in Taeil's group. Ten can't decide, his thoughts still spinning, but doesn't have to as Doyoung grabs his arm and pulls him beside him with a smile.

"When I woke up I was trapped in a glass box, but I didn't get a chance to really look around before I found you all, so I'm going back. Sound okay, guys?" Taeyong asks his group as they cross back into the red zone. All their skin colors are washed over once again with a crimson tint.

"Ten was also trapped in glass when he woke up." Jaehyun looks over at Ten, who won't meet his eyes.

"And the rest of you?"

"Just lying around in the red zone." They collectively add in.

They keep journeying through the empty space of the dream world until a large building looms in the horizon. It has two columns in the front that run infinitely long, stretching from the floor to the dark abyss above. Its wall are dyed red like everything here. There is one wide entrance with no doors at the top of the front steps. It stares back at them, as if daring them to enter. As Ten walks past the doorway he noticed an eye marking engraved in the patterns on entrance floor, similar to the one on Taeil's arm. Doyoung looks over his shoulder, studying the symbol too.

"Do you think it means something?" Ten asks.

"Everything here means something." Doyoung replies. "Whether it's worth figuring out is another question."

"I don't like it, any of it." Ten whispers to himself.

The eye of stone, that never blinked, keeps watching him from its place inside the swirls in the stone. Ten captures the image in his mind before reluctantly moving on. Taeyong is inside curiously staring at a glass box with one of its four walls completely shattered across the floor. Well now Ten knows why Taeyong had a hammer with him.

The boys go off to explore, all of them scattering across the wide marble floor of the building with its dozens of columns and mysterious passageways that branched off of the main room. Most of the passageways led nowhere, just ending in black smoky, abyss. 

Only Jaehyun seems to have found something. He motions all of the boys toward the second hallway way on the right which had an ominous looking winding stairwell at it's end. 

"What if we find someone hiding in here?" Doyoung tenses at Haechan's words when he pops up behind them. "I mean what if it isn't just us that can go into each other's dreams? At the top of these stairs could be some kind of monster waiting for us."

"Stop it." Doyoung cuts him off, sternly. "It's Taeil's dream, he wouldn't let something like that happen."

"You don't know that." Ten adds silently. "He can't actually control what goes on in here."

"What's wrong with you?" Doyoung asks.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I thought you were just being a little nervous about everything, but it seems like you are completely against it all. This is a learning experience, but you seem so negative about everything."

Doyoung's words aren't wrong. They aren't. But it's not like Ten is trying to be a pessimist. It's just that he feels deep down that something, no everything about this place is... off.

"He's just been moody ever since his vanishing acts, started. By the way, I've been meaning to ask you. Why did you lie to the experimenter?" Ten almost jumps at Haechan's unexpected question. He turns to reply but they come to a sudden halt. Ten almost colliding with Jaehyun's back.

They had reached the end of the stairs.

A wooden door blocks their way, chains strewn across its face and dozens of locks piled on the handle. It's a deep shade of red, almost black, and it towers over them, the chains rattling despite the lack of a breeze. If the sight of it isn't enough to catch the eye it surely draws his attention by the pull it had on his mind. As if it's dragging him forward slowly like a magnet.

"One of you, make a lock pick. I'll try to break through these on my own." Taeyong pulls the hammer from his belt and Jaehyun unsheathes his sword. Doyoung is already forming a lock pick between his hands, the golden glow contrasting with the shades of red.

The chains clang and shudder under their blows and Ten steps back to watch. But they didn't break. Even as they re-forge the tools in their hands, making the hammer heavier and sword sharper. It still stands there, without a single scratch.

Taeyong's hammer drops to the floor just as Doyoung puts the finishing touches on his lock pick. "It's not budging. We'll try the locks."

" _All_ of them?" Haechan whines

"Do you have somewhere better to be?" Taeyong hisses.

Haechan swallows his protests and folds his arms in defiance.

Doyoung steps forward, picking up a shiny crimson padlock in one hand while grasping his new lock pick in the other. The chains rattle once more in a terrifying sound of grating metal.

"If this is Taeil's dream, do you think he'll mind us breaking down a locked door?" Jaehyun wonders.

"Every other passageway ended in nothing. Only this one had a door and I just know there's something important behind it. Don't tell me you guys can't feel it too?" Taeyong responds.

Ten looks around at the other boys, the way they nod at each other confirms it. They all can feel some kind of pull toward that's door. That had never happened in any other the other dreams. This was new.

Doyoung's face is scrunched up as he fiddles with the first lock. A bead of sweat drips down his brow but he's only concentrated on the task. Only the padlock swimming in the reflection of his eyes. And then it clicks.

The boys quiet down in surprise as the lock falls to the floor.

"It worked." Haechan whispers.

If he was honest, Ten didn't think it would open at all, but there it is, unlocked. He glances over at Doyoung whose smile spreads from ear to ear, holding the lock pick up in the air. "Guys, we can do this. We just need to unlock the others and-"

Do's unfinished words hang in the air like a chill that raises the hair all down Ten's arms. The only answer to his words is the clink of the lock pick hitting the floor. The top step where Do had sat, now empty. Ten lets out the breath he had been holding and immediately glances at Taeyong in horror.

The leader hadn't moved, hadn't blinked, only staring at the empty step.

"Do?" Taeyong cries out, his voice uncharacteristically weak and unsure. they all wait in silence, Ten can feel Haechan huddling closer to him in fear.

"Doyoung?" Taeyong shouts this time, his voice rising in the end like a question, that he desperately wants an answer to, but Doyoung doesn't answer, doesn't reappear. There's nothing.

"Guys... the lock. It reattached itself." Jaehyun, his hands shaky, slowly points at the door. The padlock swinging on the chain like it had never fallen off.

Taeyong's fingers wrap around the hilt of his hammer, his eyes dim. "Move out the way."

Ten's thoughts raced as the desperate pounding of the weapons against the door echoed throughout the stairwell, even Haechan was trying to unlock the padlock with the lock pick but it was to no avail.

 _Won't you do something Ten._ His mind hisses back at him, as he looks down at his palms, cold and empty.

 _You knew something bad would happen, but you still let them come? You could have prevented this._ His breathing was getting faster till it matched the frantic pace of the Taeyong's hammer against the door. The shouts of the other boys fade until their nothing but background noise. His eyes darting from the door, to his palms. _Do something. Make something. Save him, Ten. Save him, like you couldn't save the woman in your vision._

Ten gasps and suddenly he was no longer in the stairwell but in a familiar sandy desert, a glider in his hand. The same vision starts to replay with the violent winds and swirling sands and he reaches out. But instead of his mother reaching back toward him, it's Doyoung stretching out his hand toward Ten. And it's Doyoung that is swept away, disappearing behind the tornado of sand.

The whispers of his mind grew louder as the vision grew stronger, but a familiar voice calls him back to reality.

"Ten?" The color of Ten's red skin brightens in a wave, and he spins around to see Taeil on the bottom step.

Sound flooded back into his mind, and soon he was out of that strange trance, the voices of the boys and the cool feel of the room rushing back into his senses.

"What's going on? I got this horrible feeling all of a sudden, so we decided to find you all. But is something wrong?" Taeil and the others peer up at them. The boys at the door went silent and Taeyong's hammer went slack in his hand.

"Taeil," Jaehyun barely whispers it. "Doyoung is...gone. He vanished."

"What?" The walls deepen to a deep blood as Taeil's face twists in confusion.

"Calm down, Taeil." Jaehyun warns.

"How am I supposed to calm down when you just told me one of our friends is missing? So, where is he?"

"We don't know." Ten's voice is almost a whisper, and he avoids looking at the others all together.

"Does it have to do with that door? I can sense something strange about it." Everyone is silent which just confirms Taeil's question. "Let me through so I can try to open it." Taeil's face twists in anger as he stomps up the steps. Ten starts to feel uneasy when he sees the stairs seemingly glitch after each of Taeil's steps. The colors around Taeil no longer brightening but darkening instead so that the red walls turn a shade close to black.

"Taeil, I think you need to calm down. Your dream is becoming unstable."

"Stop telling him to calm down. Let him try." Yuta barks back up at Jaehyun.

"Guys let's just stop and think about this for a moment." Winwin adds.

"What's there to think about? Just let me try to open the door." Taeil continues to step forward, his foot on the last step.

But the moment Taeil's hand reaches the door, the dream shatters like a broken mirror.

For a second Ten watches as the red steps collapse brick by brick, breaking away beneath his feet until he is left floating in an empty vat of darkness. And then he wakes up.

Streaks of grey fill his vision, blending together after every blink until the cold stone basement ceiling stares back at him

His grip is tight around the metal lining of his bed.

The experimenter is leaning over him, ready to say something but Ten shoots past him, down to where Doyoung's bed is. The other boys must of have the same idea because all seven of them are crowded around. Ten pushes past some of them and sees his friend. Doyoung lays there, still and motionless on his cot. Jaehyun sticks a finger below his nose. "He's breathing."

"Send me back. I can get him out. It's my dream." Taeil, is sitting in the corner, wringing his hands. "I can open the door."

"Door?" The experimenter asks with light-hearted curiosity. "Was it locked? If it was then you can't open it."

All the boys freeze at the experimenter's words. Ten watches as Yuta's face curls up before he pushes past all of them, the table beside him falling to the ground with a clatter. The experimenter backs up in a panic but Yuta yanks him by his collar, pulling him in close. "What's wrong with our friend? What did you do to him?" His words seething through his lips.

The experimenter clears his throat and tries to pick Yuta's fingers off his coat. "I'll be more than willing to explain that to you, if you choose to be compliant."

Yuta's face is inches away from the experimenter's, anger barely contained between his clenched teeth.

"Stand down, Yuta. Maybe he can help us." Taeyong approaches.

The experimenter rubs at his neck before answering. "Locked doors only appear in this kind of dreams for one purpose. A passage into the deeper parts of your mind. It chooses who to let through. And it chose Doyoung it seems. Doyoung has entered what I like to call a dream within a dream."

"You didn't tell us anything about that before." Ten speaks up from the back.

"I said earlier that it's a more enriching experience for you guys to learn along the way rather than me laying out all the facts for you."

"But will he wake up soon?" Haechan asks.

The experimenter hesitates "He'll wake up... sometime. It's different for everyone so we'll just have to wait and see."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference: The 7th Sense M/V
> 
> Extra thoughts:  
> There happens to be a lot of mentions of eyes in NCT's videos/lyrics. And for some reason NCT members are frequently being trapped in boxes (e.g. 7th sense and Boom). Could these be clues or just aesthetics?


	5. Complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things keep going wrong for the boys

Johnny never thought he’d feel relieved to see the blank white walls of his laboratory, but it was a much more welcoming sight than eight pairs of eyes glaring at him. He pulls at the collar around his shirt to loosen it, but the feeling of a hand around his throat still hung around like a shadow. Subject number 007, Yuta, was the hardest to calm down after the incident.

He flicks to the first page in his full table-sized manual. His finger trailing down the page until it came to index number beside the word ‘Dream-State Transitions’.

It’s not like he did this on purpose to their friend. With something as complex as dream states, there always is some variability, a chance that something goes wrong. And if anything, he was their greatest asset. He would be the most helpful if they wanted to save their friend. But they have no idea. He parts the book to the right section and with a thud the manual splits in half, to a page decorated in graphs and charts with one large title bannering the page that reads “Complications.”

“Dream-state transitions vary from subject to subject.” Johnny reads under his breath. “Complications are rare but not uncommon. Extended unconsciousness, psychosis, and even …” Johnny’s finger glides over the word “fatalities”. His body tenses, and he shifts in his chair uncomfortably.

“It’s nothing”, he whispers to himself before clearing his throat and continuing.

“Transitioning from one dream level to another, especially for an inexperienced and unsuspecting subject, can cause rifts between consciousness and reality. Mind and body are shifted out of phase which can cause an immediate danger response from the subject. It is best to keep subject from unexpectedly traversing of levels-”

He doesn’t want to read about prevention; he wants solutions. He skips down to the last paragraph. “If complications do occur, the best method is to wait for the subject to recover independently. Alternatively, a shock to either the mind or body, such as an electric stimulus can force the subject into realignment.”

Johnny leans back in his chair, his eyes traveling across the dark wires that run across the walls. His mind running over the information from the manual. He didn’t tell the boys that he has no idea what was happening to Doyoung. If Doyoung really did enter a deeper dream level, he still would have woken up by now. This is something he’d never been briefed on before. But still, there was no doubt in his mind that Doyoung would eventually recover on his own.

The word “fatalities” suddenly flashes across his memory.

Perhaps, he’ll prepare for a system shock...just in case. The spare jumper cables should be in the filing cabinets somewhere.

Johnny sighs. He hopes Doyoung appreciates all the work he’s putting in for him.

He’s about to go look for the jumper cables when suddenly Johnny remembers something important and his gaze is drawn back to the manual. He flips back to the index, his eyes scanning over each word. Light. Pink light. Light emission. None of those words were listed.

Sure, Doyoung’s case was important, unusual, and an issue for him. But, his thoughts run back to the basement, when all the subjects were still asleep. Johnny was pacing around, making notes in his log book as usual when he paused beside Ten’s bed.

It was hard to notice at first, in fact he had almost missed it, but Ten’s hand was glowing. The glow was a subtle pink that wound up his fingertips and as Johnny watched closely, it started running up Ten’s arm, bled into his chest and was slowly working its way up Ten’s neck. Johnny had watched in unbelief, his hand hovering over Ten’s face. Until the glow suddenly vanished, sucked back into the pale color of Ten’s skin like it had never been there before.

It was the same. The same glow that he sometimes sees coming from Ten’s pod room. The same glow he messaged headquarters about over and over. And the same glow that, no matter how hard he looked, was not listed anywhere in his all-knowing manual.

***

“1578, 1579, 1580...”

Yuta tosses a jack into a sloping pile of playing cards that floods the basement floor. Mark pens down the number 1581 on his notepad.

Ten watches the two from his seat beside Jaehyun, who’s in the metal bed his eyes barely open.

“Still feeling bad? ” Ten looks down at his friend

“It’s nothing. I always feel like this after a dream-session. It’s him that you should be more worried about.”

Ten knows that Jaehyun is referring to Doyoung who still sleeps peacefully two beds down, but he doesn’t turn around to look. He can’t bring himself to see Do like that.

If Jaehyun didn’t refuse to leave Doyoung’s side, Ten wouldn’t even be down here in the basement in the first place. It’s been two days already but that vision of Doyoung vanishing away in the sands still haunts him.

“Plus, it’s interesting to watch those two, anyway.” Jaehyun laid back down on his pillow.

Yuta flicked a queen of hearts on the deck, watching it slide down the pile, before throwing his head back in frustration. “Mark, what are we even doing this for anyway?

Mark, clicks his pen shut and looks back up at Yuta. “Data. We need data. So that we can figure out our limitations. That way maybe we can help Doyoung. Can you produce another card?”

Yuta shakes his head. “I’m too tired. I’m done.”

“Seems like your limit is around 1,600 cards. Now we know that the more objects you produce, the more energy you exert. Also, we know that whatever you make doesn’t disappear if we don’t want it too. No matter how many you produce. How ‘bout you take a break and let’s try making something other than cards when you get back.”

Ten eyes the two, watching Mark as he writes down his last notes. He’s sure what Mark’s doing is important but the way he says it’s all for Doyoung’s sake doesn’t sound right. Mark is too confident about this being a solution, in reality they all don’t know what’s going on or how to fix it.

“Don’t look at me like that. This is my way of helping.” Mark speaks up as if he read Ten’s mind. “ If we can understand our abilities better then maybe we can prevent whatever happened to him, happening to anyone else.”

“You talk like he’s already a lost cause.”

“I wasn’t trying to.”

Ten knows. He tells himself that Mark isn’t doing anything wrong. Mark is just doing what he can and it’s more than what he, himself, is doing. But he’s just so wound-up right now. Everything is strange and uncomfortable like the entire world had shifted a few degrees. To be honest he’s the worst friend of them all, he can’t even bring himself to look at Do.

“Why don’t you try?”

“Huh?” Ten is shaken from his thoughts as Mark is now staring back at him. “So far only Yuta can create things outside of the dream-world. All the other boys already tried and failed, expect you.”

Maybe it was Ten being wound-up again, but he could swear Mark’s tone was not just inquisitive; it also had a hint of accusation.

“I can’t even make things inside the dream world what makes you think I can do it in reality?”

“You’ll never know if you don’t try.” Mark closes his notebook. “but I’ll respect your decision either way.”

“I-I just…” Ten’s mind travels to his hand then to memory of Doyoung disappearing and the strange vision. “I just know I can’t create anything. I’ve already tried.”

Another lie. Ten doesn’t know if he can or not. He’s just avoiding it. Running away. To be honest, his fear is that he ends up like Jaehyun or Doyoung or that lady in his vision. That once he gets too involved in this mess, he’ll be unable to get out.

Mark doesn’t pry any longer but Ten is sure that he hasn’t completely let it go. He’ll bring it up again later. But what, Ten wonders, will his reply be then.

***

Mark reads over the last of his notes from observing Yuta before looking out into the plains that glowed golden in the afternoon sun, He leans back on the creaking clubhouse roof, eyes traveling across the horizon. Neither Taeyong or Haechan have been seen near the clubhouse which means they’re somewhere out there, on the plains. Taeyong probably had to clear his mind of everything, but he can take care of himself so there’s no need to worry about him.

But Haechan, Mark lets out a sigh, he’s maybe too young to know how to process everything. And if Mark’s being honest, he hasn’t been the nicest person to Haechan these days. It’s just that the stress is really been getting to him. What happened to Doyoung has pushed him over the edge. He knows that with data, with more observations, he can figure out what exactly is happening to everyone. It’s only a matter of time but… He fears that perhaps by the time they figure everything out, that it’ll be too late for some of the other boys too. Doyoung lying on that bed in the musty basement still lingers in his mind.

The theories and evidence that he’s been compiling swirl around in his brain when he closes his eyes, but nothing is connecting. There’s still so much missing in his data that he can’t make sense of it all. And it frustrates him to no end.

Why did the experimenter want to show us how to enter dreams? What really happened to Doyoung? Why can all of us create things in the dream states but only one of us only create things in reality?

And then Mark thinks back to Ten. Ten’s case is weird, and he never talks about it, but all the boys know that he vanishes sometimes and appears miles away. And he refuses to try creating something. Mark feels like whatever Ten knows could be a key to figuring this all out.

He rubs at his temples. None of this is making sense to him, but these questions maybe they’re too recent. Maybe he’s only addressing the symptoms of the real problem. Go back, Mark, further than that. Before the experimenter showed up. Why were ten boys living in this clubhouse together in the first place? Where did we come from? Why did he not question things before now?

But a small movement on the plains catches his attention, and he pulls the binoculars to his eyes. His lips spread into a smile when he sees a little orange dot a few hundred meters away. “Found you.”

Mark finally makes it to the thick oak tree after a few hours-worth of walking and sees Haechan huddled behind it, his head hanging down. He approaches hesitantly, wondering what he’d do if Haechan was crying. He wasn’t good with tears, but Mark was the closest to Haechan in age so if anyone was going to understand him, maybe it was himself.

He laid a hand on the youngest shoulder, who flinched but didn’t turn around. “Haechan, it’s just me Mark. I wanted to know if you were okay? If you need anyone to talk to… I can hear you out.”

The youngest pauses for a second before the back of his head bobs up and down as a reply.

“What’s happening to Doyoung is something none of us expected so it’s not our fault and it’s not your fault.” Mark moves around the tree to face Haechan but Haechan swiftly turns his body away.

He probably is crying and doesn’t want him to see.

“Look there’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Again, Mark tries to crouch down beside Haechan but the youngest gets up and moves.

A tinge of frustration builds up in Mark that always tends to happen when he’s around Haechan, but he calms himself with a long drawn out exhale. Let’s try to be more understanding, Mark. He must be in a lot of pain.

“Haechan please just look at me.” This time Mark moves fast and Haechan is too slow. Mark pulls Haechan toward him so that they’re now face to face but his expression falls. Haechan’s eyes are dry, in fact they’re wide in shock. But it’s what’s in his arms that make Mark stagger backwards.

“What are you doing with those?”

Needles. The same ones that the experimenter uses to get them into the dream state -two of them were clenched between Haechan’s fist. “I-I just found them.”

“You…” Mark scoffs. “I thought you were sad about Doyoung but turns out you’re just a thief.”

“I didn’t steal them, I swear. Don’t tell Taeyong.” Haechan whines.

“Give them to me. I’m returning them.”

“No.” Haechan backs up, and slips the needles into his shoulder bag. “These days all you talk about is how you need more data. Well here it is. More data. Why return it to the experimenter? The guy that none of us trust.”

The youngest, brushes Mark’s hands off of him with a scowl. But Mark is stuck in his thoughts contemplating what Haechan just said. He wasn’t wrong. In fact, this may be that missing piece that he needed.

“Where did you find them?” Mark asks.

“Remember when Yuta almost punched the experimenter, well his briefcase fell to floor, and these two needles fell out. I was thinking, with these we can send ourselves to the dream world. Maybe we can save Doyoung like that. Also, there’s this.” Haechan pulls up a cassette tape that draws Mark’s eyes each way that Haechan moves it. “Still want to return them?”


	6. Suspicions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys start getting suspicious. Johnny takes some action...

“Damn it.” Johnny closes and reopens the briefcase but there’s still nothing inside. There should be two serum needles and one of the company cassette tapes. The tape isn't a big deal, he could easily remake that. Instead, it's the needles that cause him to stare intensely at the velvet lining of his empty briefcase. The best-case scenario is that he forgot to make two extra – which he knows isn’t true. He has never once forgotten to do something on the job and he's certain that today isn’t an exception. That leaves the fact that he lost them. He cradles his head in his hands. They could either be laying around on the empty plains or – what he fears the most – be in the hands of one of the Subjects.

It's true that since the needles were creations of his, he could just make them vanish. But according to the rules he has to have them in his line of sight to do anything. And that would be the hardest part. First, he’d have to re-enter that horrid dream world and then he’d have to find out where exactly the needles are.

Of course, there was the option of ignoring the entire thing. Pretending it didn’t happen.

But… he glances back at his computer with a swallow, he’s never _not_ reported anything to Headquarters. If they find about his mistake would they punish him? Would his first reply from them in years be them firing him?

He paced around with his hands on his head. What’s the worst that can happen? Those boys won’t know how to use it, they’re not that intelligent, yet. But…

Johnny’s thoughts travel back to the raven-haired boy that glared at him from the corner, the boy who was glowing,Ten. He shouldn’t underestimate those boys. They were already showing signs of becoming dangerous. If any one of them could figure it out, it’d be him wouldn’t it? That subject made him unsettled. Because out of all of them, he was the most unpredictable.

But it was then that Johnny got a marvelous idea.

The monitor room.

He almost forgot. Each subject is continuously monitored throughout their lives in the dream-world, so that every second of their existence is logged in the memory of their own computer. Johnny races down the sterile hallway and pushes his way into the monitor room. All eighteen of the blue screened computers immediately power up. Monitors stacked upon monitors.

And they all reflect the crooked smile on his face as he glances around. If any one of the Subjects picked those needles up, he’ll find out.

_***_

Taeyong launches his fist at the wooden door that squeals on its rusty hinges. His nostrils flare and he tries to keep the every threatening tears from falling down his face. It’s his fault. One of his friends is… and he couldn’t do anything to help.

He slumps to the floor, hanging his head between his knees. Just like always.

It was all he could to do to just run away as far as possible in order to cool down. If the others knew what a mess he was inside, they’d lose all hope too. Some leader he was.

The warm drip of a tear lands on his arm and he angrily wipes his eyes with back of his hand. Don’t fall apart, Taeyong. He can’t. Not now. Not when everyone needs him the most. He takes a good look around at the rusted, run-down barn. The place they call The Ruins. He can't stay out here isolating himself forever. His shoulders fall with a sigh.

The sudden bang of the window shutters flying open, causes Taeyong to leap to his feet. But there's no one there. It's just the wind again. He goes to pull the shutter close when his eyes catch something moving across the plains. Instinctively, he pulls back into the shadows, but still lingers close enough to watch. A black figure, that moves like blowing fabric, glides across the grass. It stops periodically to glance around before continuing to race through the night. It's inhumanely fast and its getting closer, almost alarmingly close to the barn, but that also means its close enough for Taeyong to get a better look. It's when the moonlight shifts out of the clouds that it hits the figure just right, revealing an all too familiar wide-brim hat. The experimenter.

In a second, the experimenter arrives in the Ruins, his coat flying behind him as he races to a stop. He begins to slowly walk the perimeter of the fence, his polished shoes kicking up dirt as he moves, and his eyes darting around, as if inspecting every blade of grass and fallen piece of wood in his path. He holds out one of his hands into the open air. Within a blink, a long clinking chain manifests in his grasp, summoned out of nothing. The tail-end of the chain hits the ground with a heavy thud.

Taeyong swallows down a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, but it's another sight that makes his eyes go wide in shock. Not far between him and the experimenter is a pile of discarded wood and between the planks are two pairs of darting eyes.

He didn’t have to think twice to know who those eyes belonged to. He knows every one of his friends like the back of his hand. But why were Mark and Haechan hiding out here in the dark?

The experimenter’s chains rattle as it slithers across the rocky ground, like it has a mind of his own. His black shoes inching closer and closer to the two boys. Mark closes his eyes and huddles further into his hiding place. Taeyong hesitates. His eyes darting back and forth between the younger boys and the dark clothed figure. There’s no reason for them to be afraid of the experimenter. He’s done us no harm before.

Taeyong’s gaze lingers on the thick heavy chain and the fear in the two set of eyes peeking out of the wood pile. But there must be a reason those two are hiding and there’s definitely a reason Taeyong, himself, instinctively hid from sight.

Taeyong keeps his eyes on the three as he bends down to the ground, his fingers wrapping tightly around a rock.

Whatever is going on, his first priority is always his friends.

And he wasn’t going to let them down anymore.

The experimenter’s face spun so fast that his figure blurred when the rock soars past him. A sharp crack echoes throughout the night as the rock shatters into tiny shards. Before Taeyong could even register what just happened, the experimenter's chain had already slithered back to the ground, coiling around his feet like a snake after striking.

Taeyong’s heart thuds in his chest as he does the second craziest thing he's ever done. He leaps out of the window and toward the experimenter. For a second, he stops breathing as he hears the chain tense in the experimenter’s grasp again, but nothing happens. Instead the chain vanishes from his hand, immediately as if never there. But before he can relax, the experimenter rushes toward him, so quickly that in a heartbeat he was standing only a few feet away. His empty eyes scan over Taeyong.

“What are you doing out here so late at night?”

Taeyong swallows and straightens up his back. “Just uh clearing my head.”

“Was that you, just now?”

“I heard something outside. Thought it was a wild animal.” Keep calm, Taeyong.

That reply seems to appease him, because he nodded and tilted his hat up so that his black eyes looked directly into Taeyong’s. “Then let me ask you something. Have you seen any of the other boys lurking around this area?”

Taeyong thought he heard a whimper from the direction of the woodpile, so he quickly spit out an answer.

“All of the boys were still in the clubhouse. Last I saw.” Taeyong hopes the darkness of the night conceals the drip of sweat that hangs on his brow. He clears his throat. “I would have known if any of them were around here, why?”

“No reason.” A smile that seemed out of place, broke onto the experimenter’s face. “Just didn’t want anyone out here by themselves. You too. I know you’re a capable subject, but these are still dangerous areas.”

Taeyong nods obediently, trying not to glance behind him at the two boys and their hiding spot.

“Well then, I better get going-”

“Where?” Taeyong spit out without thinking. “Where did you come from?”

Even in the dark he could see the deep lines that began to etch into the experimenter’s brow as he tilted his head back at the young leader.

“I-I just never see you around.” Taeyong stutters back.

The taller man pauses before pursing his lips. “I live far away. Past the horizon...Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” Taeyong repeats back the same answer that the experimenter had given him earlier. Maybe he was overdoing it, but he knew he needed to get the experimenter to focus on him and not on the two boys behind them. But maybe getting his attention wasn’t the best idea after all because now those eyes were locked on him, as if calculating something.

“It’s in your best interest not to worry about things like that. Trust me.”

And before Taeyong could reply ,the experimenter was gone. Out of sight. As if never there.

Taeyong lets out a heavy sigh as he moves through the night. He stops by the woodpile and knocks on it before bending down to face two boys who nearly screamed at the sight of him.

“Shhhh.”

“T-Taeyong?” Mark looks up at the leader inquisitively. “Where’s the experimenter?”

“Gone.” He stretches out a hand towards the two. “Get up and follow me.” The three head back into the Ruins but not without throwing a few glances around the night out of paranoia.

“Now, one of you tell me what’s going on.” Taeyong turned to face the two youngest boys in their group. Mark and Haechan were not usually seen together unless they were fighting so it’s strange enough that they’re near the ruins at night, just the two of them.

“Your eyes are red. Were you crying?” Haechan playfully points out but he quickly retreats when Taeyong shoots him a cold glare.

“Don’t try to get out of this. Why were you hiding from the experimenter? What did you two do?” They glanced at each other. Mark mouthing something and giving Haechan a nudge. Finally, with reluctance Haechan un-clenches his fist to reveal two glimmering needles.

“Are you crazy?” Is all Taeyong could think to say. He’s tries his best just to keep him voice down. “You guys took the dream session needles!”

“He stole them, not me.” Mark chimes in, only to be shot down by another one of Taeyong’s looks.

“I already went through this with Mark. I didn’t steal them. They just fell out of his briefcase and I _collected_ them.”

“And what were you planning on doing with these?”

Haechan sighs. “I was going to use them. To try and find Doyoung.”

Taeyong tries to keep himself from pacing around, but his frustration is rising dramatically. He pinches the top of his nose before speaking again. “And when were you planning on telling me? _If_ you ever were. Do you know what I just did for you? I lied to the experimenter because I thought you two were in danger. But now I found out that I just covered up your crimes.”

They stay silent.

Taeyong shakes his head. Honesty, being straightforward, caring for each other, that’s what he tried to teach and show them all as their leader, but it seems he failed, again. He shouldn’t have doubted the experimenter, he was just looking for something that he lost. But…. His mind roams back to the image of the two huddled behind the wood, the clink of the chain dragging across the dirt, and the dark gaze that the experimenter wore. Why does he still feel like he did the right thing?

“And you, Mark?”

Mark pops his head up.

“You’re usually the level-headed one. What's your reason for hiding this?”

Mark pauses before speaking. “You see. I don’t really trust the experimenter either. There’s…too many inconsistencies. I’ve been making a mental map of everything and what he’s been saying to us is incomplete. ”

“Incomplete?”

“The way he showed up one day. Did you realize that he knew all of our names even without asking? And then he knew about the basement which none of us had ever seen before. And the cassette tapes he plays for us. About Force Co., about being an employee, he never told us what that meant. Every session he takes footage but what does he do with it? Do you hear what he says after every recording? He talks about what phase we are in. What are the different phases and why are we not in the same one? Ever since he got here, nothing makes sense.” Mark pauses. “We've been running from him all afternoon. If he's chasing us that means he is scared of us, of what we might find out with these needles. So, that mean's there's something going on and he is not a reliable source of information. Meaning we need a better way to figure things out.”

“By exploring first hand.” Taeyong murmurs back. 

Mark nods.

Taeyong's mouth twists as he tries to run through all the information Mark just told him.

“We know you trust the experimenter, so we weren’t sure you’d go along with it.” Haechan joins in.

Taeyong walks over to them and slumps to the ground beside them, his head resting on the old wooden wall. These days it’s been a lot harder to be a good leader to them. And he hardly knows what the right thing to do is. But at the very least he shouldn’t have made the younger ones feel like they can’t rely on him. There is no right answer. Is what he thinks. Every step, whether that be toward the experimenter or away from him will be dangerous. But he should, as a leader, at least walk alongside his friends.

“You know I only want the best for you all, right?” He finally breaks the silence.

The two boys nod.

“Then let me think about it. But if we do this. _If_. Then it won’t be you guys. I’ll do it.”

"You'll go alone?" Mark asks.

Taeyong pauses as his mind drifts toward one of the older boys. The one who he was sure knew something about all of this. The one who distrusted the experimenter from the moment he walked into our door. The only one that he had been at odds with because of their conflicting views. But why was he so sure, why did he know, that Ten would be important in figuring this all out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference: No specific video, but check out the NCTmmentaries for clips of what the Ruins and clubhouse look like


	7. Unexpected Finds

Ten’s eyes follow the cracks in his ceiling as he lays spread across his bed. This house... it’s slowly suffocating him.

There's Jaehyun who's too sick to come out of his room, Taeil who doesn’t know that his crying could be heard from down the hall, and of course there’s the person he can’t bear to think of right now. The one he could have saved if he’d been more persuasive about not going on another dream session. He groans and pulls the blanket over him.

But it’s the creak of the door that makes him flick his eyes back open.

The door cracks ajar. A boy with a shy smile peeks in. Winwin stays in the doorway, not saying anything for awhile before gesturing down to a cup of water in his hands. “I just thought you might want something to drink.”

“No thanks.”

Maybe he was being too terse. Winwin didn’t do anything wrong. But he wasn’t in the mood.

“I’ll just leave it on your desk, for whenever you feel better.” Ten closes his eyes and waits for Winwin’s footsteps to leave the room, but Winwin doesn’t turn to leave; instead he sighs, loud enough that Ten could hear and his heart sinks a little.

Let’s not be like this Ten. You’re not the only one suffering here.

“What’s wrong?” Ten reluctantly asks, though he doesn’t bother to open his eyes. He could hear Winwin tugging at his sleeve before speaking up. “I just have something to ask you.”

There’s a long pause.

“It’s about the dream sessions. Um, I was….wondering if you knew anything about Doyoung. Why he wasn’t waking up- I mean.”

“If I did, would I be laying here, doing nothing?” 

Winwin winces.

Again, he was being too harsh.

“The thing is I…I had this feeling…maybe it’s just nothing. But about him waking up, maybe we should be careful about it. I don’t know, that’s just a feeling...” Winwin’s words trail off into silence and Ten tries his best to not to sigh out loud.

“We don’t even _know_ how to wake him up, so why worry? Don’t keep yourself up at night thinking about it."

Ten rolls to the side, away from Winwin, so that his gaze falls on the scratched wooden walls.

“It’s just that I keep having this strange…” Winwin pauses and rubs his hands together nervously. “Never mind. You’re probably right.”

It would be a lie if Ten didn’t feel guilty as he heard Winwin slowly walk out of the room and close the door behind him. But we’re all feeling hopeless right now. He can’t comfort someone when he himself is at a lost. He rests an arm across his face.

He wants to run away. Somewhere far.

Far away to…

A place with the sun shining down on the desert sands. With his wind stroking his hair and…and…

Ten throws open his eyes but it’s too late. The cracked ceiling melts away into a blue sky. His bed sheets break apart until they slip between his fingers like sand. He’s back in that world. But this time.

This time it’s different.

Ten glances at his hands. Usually he’s a child in a white garment, but now he’s himself. Instead the child is in front of his eyes, walking barefoot across the sands behind a woman covered in grey. Ten watches in awe as they move through the motions of his usual vision. The glider flying away in the wind, the child’s eyes moving toward the sky, the sudden darkening of the clouds and the woman vanishing behind the sands.

What's going on? He murmurs as he watches the scenes unfold. The little boy alone in the desert, slowly turns his head to face Ten. They lock eyes.

The young kid's black hair spins around his face and he clutches tight to that broken glider. He parts his lips and Ten watches as the little boy mouths two unmistakable words:

_Wake.Up._

Wake up? Ten's eyebrows furrow as he stares back at the young boy. The sands around him begin to pick up speed. "What do you mean?" He yells back. But the vision is breaking, cracking.

The blues of the sky and figure of the boy being swept up by the sandstorm. Ten's voice can hardly be heard above the screaming wind.

"What do you mean?! Wake up from what? Please!"

“Please!” Ten bolts up from his vision to blinding sunlight and a sharp pain that shoots down his back. He pries himself off the boulder he landed on, dusts off his clothes and lifts his eyes. There are three figures in front of him that with each blink slowly turn into the stunned faces of Haechan, Mark and Taeyong. In Mark’s hand a needle, not unlike the one the experimenter used before, and Taeyong sits across from him with a rolled-up sleeve.

“Ten?”

“How weird? He just appeared like the experimenter does.” Either Haechan didn't know how to whisper or simply didn't care about being discrete at all because Ten could here everything he was saying.

Ten rises to his feet. “Where am I and how long has it been?”

Ten furrows his brows as he glances around him. Not one word escaping the lips of the other three. In fact, he sees Mark slyly slip the needle behind his back.

“First, why don’t you tell us what just happened?” Taeyong pipes up. A hostile tone like always.

“Do you think I know?” Ten snaps back sharper than he meant to, probably because his body was still aching from landing on a rock. Out of all places he just had to appear here, huh?

“So, whenever you disappear… you _literally_ disappear.” Mark murmurs beneath his breath. “You never mentioned this.”

“Like I said. I don’t know what’s going on myself so how could I explain it to you.”

“But-“

Taeyong put his hand up to stop Mark. “He’s always been secretive. It’s no surprise.”

“Is that really something you should be saying. I saw Mark hiding something behind his back. You guys have secrets of your own."

Taeyong sighs but then gestures Ten toward him. “You really can’t go one day without causing conflict, can you? Whatever, for once I’m glad you showed up. Get over here and pull up your sleeve.”

Ten despite his confusion, takes a step closer to the trio.

“Haechan prep the other needle for Ten.” The leader turns to face Ten with an unusual grin on his face. “I needed someone to come with me anyway.”

“Come with you? You mean on a dream session? Are you crazy, I’m not going after what happened-”

“We’re going to save Doyoung. Me and you. I need your help, Ten.”

***

Ten open’s his fist, and watches as white cold ice melts into his palm. He glances up to see the sky swirling with this stuff.

“What is this?”

Taeyong walks ahead of him, stomping through the bed of white that blankets the ground. His hair a shade of red so bright it looks like a sizzling flame against the bleak landscape . “Not sure, but let’s not waste time questioning the sky when we’ve got someone to find.”

Ten clicks his tongue before trudging behind Taeyong. This is why they can never seem to get along. Who even made him leader, anyway?

"We're here.” They both glance up at a towering, stone building. The dark windows carved out of its face, glare back down at them like a spider with hundreds of eyes.Ten sees out of the corner of his eyes, a glow start to form in Taeyong’s palm which soon forms into his signature hammer. “Just to be safe.” Taeyong answers though Ten didn't ask.

“You should make one, too. There's something off about this dream that I just can't put my finger on. It feels dangerous” Taeyong says.

"I can’t” Ten reluctantly replies.

“Oh... that’s right. I suppose I can take care of both of us then.”

For some reason that makes Ten even more ticked off. He holds his fingers in front of his face. Should he try it, just once?

“Ten, just forget it and look around. We’re looking for a locked door.”

“Yeah. I'm know.”

“Are you sure?”

Ten sucks in a breath and stops in his tracks. “This isn't gonna work. Let’s split up and meet back up again later. We'll cover more ground that way, anyway.”

Taeyong looks as if he was ready to counter his remark, but instead just waves it off. “Fine.” A brass locator flies over Taeyong's shoulder. Ten snatches out of the air, only inches from his face. “But keep close.”

Ten runs his fingers along the cold, damp walls of the building in efforts to focus, making a mental note of every turn he's made so far. He can’t afford to waste time getting lost in this massive place. The tick of the locator in his hand told him Taeyong is moving further away toward the West which made the sudden lack of color in his skin and the surroundings not so big a surprise. So, Taeyong is the dream host.

It is curious, though. How every dream session is so different from the last. The slick concrete that lines the inside of this building is nothing like the pillared hallways from the last time. There's even a distinct smell of smoke that drifts in from the overhead vents, and grooves and scratches in the floor, meaning this building had history long before he and Taeyong arrived. Almost like it was...real.

Ten breath hitches in his throat when he suddenly hears a high-pitched tone. It's faint and it fades in and out, but it's definitely there.

_Could it be?_

He tries not to get ahead of himself. Just follow the sound first. He casts his eyes down to concentrate on the sounds, letting his sense of hearing guide his way.The hallways it leads him down are full of ominous shadows, ones that bend along the walls and stretch their claws up to the flickering fluorescent lights. He moves cautiously around sharp turns and past dark dead-ends, clutching tightly to the locator and silently regretting splitting up with the person with the hammer. But the noise grows louder as he moves forward, so he keeps going.

He takes another step and realizes that he's entered a clearing. It's a wide room with multiple hallways seemingly merging into it like ant tunnels to a anthill. The ceiling is low; so low he could touch it if he jumped and there are no windows, at all.Though he can't remember going down any stairs, he had a feeling that he was below ground. But the strangest thing about this space is that it's full of chairs, lined up in a way that was reminiscent of some kind of order, as if someone was attempting to line them up in rows. But the chairs all face nothing. Just an empty wall.

A shiver runs down Ten's arms and he tries to shake the worries that begin to rise.

Then the high-pitched sound returns.

His eyes shoot up toward on particular hallway across the clearing. There's a faint pulse of light at the end of that pathway and he is sure that he found the source of the noise. His feet move without him thinking. As he grows closer, the sounds begin to tumble into words. As if someone is speaking.

_Doyoung?_

Ten's heart rises in his throat.

He takes a turn down another hallway, following the sound. His eyes fly open at the sight.

The door sways open on its hinges revealing a small equipment room. Inside is a wall full of blinking lights and lined with metal. On top a rickety shelf in the corner, sits a small black box. On its screen flashes a grainy image and from its speaker echoes the faded sound of a man's voice.

_It's not Doyoung. It's not..._

His shoulders sink as he slumps against the wall and he can feel his eyes start to burn. But he can't cry. Not now. 

Ten sighs, running his hands through his hair. They'll never find him at this rate. He covers his eyes with hands. But his ears perk up when the box once again begins to speak. "Welcome to...valued employee..." Ten straightens up and narrows his eyes at the curious machine. _Why had he felt like he heard those words before?_

Without knowing Ten finds himself moving closer and closer toward it. He swings around the stool and leans in, his eyes reflecting back at him from the shiny surface. 

The images that fade in and out of the screen are difficult to see, broken up by random fuzzy lines. But he manages to make out two men, standing behind some kind of podium. Their voices are choppy but it seems like there is one phrase that keeps being repeated over and over. Ten moves closer to try to decipher the words. “For…Force…Force co?”

_Force Co.?_

The box coughs out that last of its life and then goes fully black, image gone. Ten is left with only the reflection of himself. That name, he knew it from the experimenter, from the cassette tapes. Force Co. What did the experimenter say about it again? That they work for them?

But what does that even mean?

Ten straightens up. His fingers begin to tremble. A sudden sharp sense of fear travels up and down his arms. This was getting to be too much. All he wants is to find his friend and get things back to normal. 

He looks down at his shaky hands and suddenly he becomes aware of the narrowness of the room, the lack of windows, and the way the shadows cloaked most of the concrete walls in darkness. Taeyong was right. This dream did feel...strangely dangerous. Maybe it'd be best to rejoin Taeyong, after all. Ten pulls the brass locator out of his pocket. But his eyes go wide.

The number on its face is flickering so fast that Ten could barely read it. 800 meters away. 700. 600. 500. 400.

Ten shoots out into the hallway. The overhead lights flicker above him, making it so that he can barely see more than a few meters down the hallway. He glances down at the locator.

300 meters and quickly decreasing.

_Just how fast was Taeyong running?_

Suddenly a wave of color floods into his clothes and Ten knows Taeyong is close. Really close. His nails dig into his palms as he glances into the darkness in front of him. Bracing himself.

Then the ground begins to shake. 

***

“Mark, you’re a genius.”

Mark, not used to such positive feedback from Haechan, is for once at a loss for words. Haechan holds up the two empty needles used on Taeyong and Ten. Well, they should have been empty, except that a quarter of the syringe is still full and shimmers with the mysterious dream serum.

“We’re still not sure this will be enough for us.”

“Don’t make me regret complimenting you.” Haechan bites back.

Mark had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. "Beside I'm a little nervous about, you know...them."

Mark and Haechan glance over at Taeyong's and Ten's bodies slumped against the wooden wall of the Ruins. "What if we're putting them in danger by not giving them the full dose? They trusted us to watch over them."

Haechan swallows before draping a blanket over the two bodies. "What's done is done. Let's just hurry up so they never have to find out."

"And won't they notice us, when we also appear in the dream world?" Mark continued to murmur to himself.

Haechan slings his backpack over his shoulder and clutches tightly to the syringe. "The dream worlds are big, if we're lucky we won't run into each other. Plus what can they do, send us back?"

Mark wrings his hands as he looks at the two older boys one last time before mouthing 'sorry' as he tries to catch up with Haechan. The two head to the outer edge of the Ruins. What seems to be the remains of an old barn tower lays in small pieces across the floor. Only its metal skeletal still stretches toward the sky as the last proof that it was once a tall tower. There's a gentle breeze that tousles Mark's hair and he notices quite curiously that the wind never seems to displace even the smallest of pieces of broken wood on the floor. But he was getting distracted again and Haechan was already many paces ahead by now.

They head to the dense area of shrubbery that clings to the edge of the tower structure, winding around its skinny frame as if trying to choke what little life it had left out of it. Those bushes are dense and dark, thus making the perfect hideout just in case… well, in case someone they don't want to run into, comes around.

Mark watches Haechan's orange hair disappear as he sneaks into the leaves. He follows behind and scoots deep into the branches. Mark watches as Haechan pull out his needle and taps the edge with his fingernail. "Well," Haechan points the needle fearlessly toward his forearm. "See you on the other side."

"Wait!" Mark yells just as Haechan's needle is inches from his skin.

The youngest one frowns, running his hand through his hair in frustration "What? What? What is it?"

"Just," Mark hesitates. "I mean- just stay safe. Don't wander off. I'll try to find you."

Haechan blinks a few seconds, clearly caught off guard. "Oh, okay"

Mark nods and holds up his syringe. "And um do you think we can do this together."

"Why, you scared?" Haechan asks with a hint of his usual sarcasm. But Mark just looks down. 

"Actually" Mark pauses and stares at the needle."..yeah, I am." Haechan lets his smile drop and the two exchange a heavy look.

Haechan clears his throat and leans back against the brick of the tower. "Well, I guess I can't really tease you for that...Okay, then together on three?"

Mark nods as he sets the needle above his arm.

"One"

Mark sucks in a breath focusing on the swaying leaves around him.

"Two."

The needle is cold against his skin.

"Three."

The world goes dark.

...

Mark flicks opens his eyes but the world...remains dark.

He blinks.

But no, he was awake, there just weren't any lights.

His hand fumbles around beside him and he feels a familiar soft fabric like a blanket and sheets. Was he on a bed then? Was the serum not enough? Did he just pass out and get dragged back to his room in the clubhouse?

No, he gazed out into the darkness. This didn't feel like his room. Not at all.

"Haechan!" Mark cried out. "Are you there?"

No answer.

His heart began to beat wildly in his chest. _What if they messed something up? What if Haechan is in trouble? What if..._

"Haechan, where are you?" Mark calls out again.

Then his ears catch the squeak of bed springs and a rustle of the covers.

Someone else is here.

"Haechan is that you!" Mark shoots up without thinking and his head collides with the ceiling above him. The bang of his skull against metal, echoes like a gong.

Mark is still rubbing his head in pain when a pinprick of a light breaks through the darkness. Finally he can see. He glances around the long room. It's empty except for dozens of bunk-beds lined against the wall. But he hardly has time to take in his surroundings, when suddenly, a head bends down from above. Mark scrambles backward, his back slamming against the wall. A boy with short chestnut hair stares back at him, a tiny flashlight in his hand. His face, even though upside down and hardly visible in the dim lighting, is very obviously twisted in anger.

"Are you insane!" The boy hanging upside down hisses. "Follow the procedure and keep quiet like we planned. Is it that hard to remember those few steps-" The boy's voice trails off as he begins to get a good look at Mark. He aims the flashlight directly at him. His glaring eyes slowly beginning to widen in surprise.

"You...you're not part of my squad." The boy whispers

Mark holds his breath as he looks over the boy. A boy he's never seen before in his entire life.

"Just, who are you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we meet the Dreamies finally! They'll be officially introduced in the next chapter.  
> References:  
> Baby Don't Stop M/V  
> Chewing Gum M/V
> 
> Extra Notes:  
> Also, I suggest listening to Cyberpunk background music on Youtube while reading. It's what I listen to while writing.


	8. Stranger

"Just who are _you_?"

Mark's mouth is wide open, unable to speak even a word. The two look at each other in confusion for who knows how long. He's only shook out of his trance when his ears perk up. An eerie buzzing echoes from the direction of the door, like a million wasps were swarming behind it. The other boy's expression darkens. Then with a click of his flashlight he vanishes from sight. In one swift motion the boy flips down and onto Mark's bed, then scoots in close.

"What is that-?" Mark begins to say.

The boy's clasps a hand over Mark's mouth. "Shut up." He whispers.

They wait in silence. A bead of sweat running down the side of Mark's forehead as he watches the thin sliver of light from beneath the door, that ominous noise growing louder and louder. Mark sucks in a breath when a shadow suddenly steps into view, blocking the light and darkening the room around them. The boy tightens his grasp around Mark's mouth subconsciously, and whispers something under his breath. Mark can feel a slight tremor in his hand. He swallows and tries to not think about who or what could be outside the door.

It's an agonizing few minutes that seem like hours as they wait in darkness. The figure stays behind the door, as if debating whether to come in. Mark's eyes are focused solely and intensely on the doorknob.

_Don't turn. Don't turn_. He screams inside his head.

There's a _click_ and his heart drops. He squeezes his eyes shut, prepared for the worst.

But...

Nothing happens.

He looks back up but the shadow's gone. That... thing passed them by.

As if frozen, they two stay in their huddled up positions until the last of the buzzing fades away down the hallway. Mark gasps for air as the boy finally relinquishes his surprisingly strong hold. The little flashlight flickers back on, casting an eerie glow up on the boy's face.

"Just what on Earth was that?" Mark whispers. His gaze keeps darting back to that door. Just in case.

"Bad news." The boy shakes his head and tugs at the zipper of his cross-body bag. "It wasn't supposed to show up so soon."

"What do you mean by that-?"

"What's your ID?"

Again Mark was cut off and it was getting more and more frustrating each time. "Sorry, my what?"

The boy fishes out what looks like a notebook, but it's surface is shiny and metallic like the fallen shingles that Mark sometimes finds in the grass around the clubhouse. Though this is no normal notebook and definitely not a piece of scrap metal; the boy taps it twice and it lights up with a rainbow of dazzling colors across it's surface. "Your I.D." The boy emphasizes each letter as if speaking to a child. "I'm trying to look you up in the directory."

"Uh...I don't know... I'm just Mark."

"Not you name," The boy looks back up with a huff, his eyebrows furrowed in impatience. "Your ID. You know, like your assigned number."

"My number?" Mark's thoughts began to wander, leading him back to the clubhouse, back to the kitchen, back to the blinking red dot of the camcorder and the empty lens glaring at him. _Mark. Subject 002._ The experimenter's words echo in his head.

_Was that his number?_

The other boy watches Mark with a growing suspicion. His eyes dark back and forth as he starts to process the situation. Then as if he had a sudden realization, his whole expression began to dim, to a terrifying degree. Any previous sign of friendliness was replaced by a frigid air. Mark watches with bated breath as the boy's hand cautiously begins to move to his back pocket.

"Surely," the boy speaks slowly. "You wouldn't be...an experimenter?"

Mark sees a glint of metal sticking out of the boy's pocket, his fingers just inches from wrapping themselves around it.

Mark's words tumble out of his mouth like soda fizz. "No I'm not. I swear. We have an experimeter, but it's not me. I'm Mark, just Mark. I really don't know where I am and what I'm doing here. I've never met anyone in the dreamworld that wasn't one of my friends."

" _Friends_? There are more of you?" The boy is still tense but at least his hand is beginning to drift away from his back pocket. Mark breaths a sigh of relief, and attempts to steady his rising heartbeat.

"Yes. I actually came here with one of them. Haechan. Have you seen him? My height, orange headed-"

The boy holds up a hand as a sign for Mark to stop talking which Mark promptly did as he shrank back to the corner of the bed.

"There are more of you here? This isn't good. Not good at all." The boy murmurs under his breath. "First that creature and now this."

Mark watches the person across from him begin to tug on the edge of his shirt collar, clearly lost in thought. Even though they were sitting down, Mark could tell the boy was shorter than him. He had a small, lean build and now that Mark was looking at him, he could see that he was probably around the same age, if not younger, but his sharp eyes and even sharper way of speaking gives him a much more mature aura which was, admittedly, a little intimidating.

Every one of Mark's instincts were in state of alarm, sirens all go off inside his head. Here was this intimidating and most likely dangerous person sitting opposite of him. Anything could happen. There was no reason to trust or listen to him. The logical response, even after thinking about it from every angle, was for Mark to just escape and going to find Haechan himself especially right now when the boy is distracted.

He picks mindlessly at the woolen fibers of the blanket under him.

_And yet..._

Mark just can't get over the fact that this situation was borderline revolutionary. He just stumbled across someone else in the dreamworld. Another person, just like him. A tiny smile begins to wind up his lips.

Could he really let this opportunity pass him by? The chance to finally get some more information.

Mark is shaken from his thoughts when the boy lets out a frustrated grunt having reached the resolution to this internal dilemma "I'm going to have to cancel it. Damn it."

He fishes a pebble shape object out of his bag and fits it snug in his ear, then taps it twice, just like with the notepad.

"Captain to squad. Captain to squad." He calls out into the empty room.

Mark glances around, but it was just the two of them. He's pretty sure of that, at least.

"Abort and reconvene at meeting location. Repeat: Abort and reconvene at meeting location. Mission has been compromised." The boy continues.

As expected, no one responds. But then, much to Mark's shock, a static-y voice, cuts through the silence. "Roger captain. Will commence movement to meeting location B. Repeat: Will commence movement to meeting location B. Over."

Mark tries to let his surprise show. He already feels like this kid doesn't think much of him and he doesn't want to give him any more reason to think so.

His only tool right now is his brain, so let's try to use it. He inhales and starts rolling over the facts in his head. Someone was communicating with this boy, someone not in the room. This started after the boy used put that rock-like device in his ear. It seems like the reply isn't recorded either since it's replying to his questions real-time. Therefore the thing in his ear is most likely what's allowing the communication. It seems to let two people hear each other and relay their replies if they aren't in the same room.

"Fascinating" Mark whispers to himself. His eyes shining bright and a tooth biting into his lip with excitement.

"Captain to squad. Also, keep a lookout for," The boy turned toward Mark, eyes narrowing. "... unexpected visitors. Repeat: Keep a lookout for visitors."

There's no reply for a while. Mark thinks the other person may have not heard. But after a while the voice returns, only this time, hesitant and unsure.

"Sorry, Captain? ...Did you say visitors?"

The boy clears his throat. "That's correct. I have one in custody. There's at least one more on the loose. Apprehend if possible."

"..."

The boy taps the device in his ear again. "Lieutenant, your response?"

"Uh, yeah...I mean… uh, Roger, Captain. Over"

"Over."

The device lets out a click as the boy slips it out of his ear, his piercing gaze redirecting to Mark. His index finger drums intently on the frame of the bed. "So, newcomer...

"Mark."

"Right…"

Mark was never good with subtleties, but even he could tell he probably shouldn't have said anything.

The boy's smirk dissolved into a frown. "Well Mark, I hope you're aware you've just made things a whole lot more difficult for us."

Mark arches his eyebrow. "Us?"

"Don't worry, you'll meet the others soon enough. Because you'll be coming with me."

_Oh, I see._ Mark nods to himself. _He'll meet the others soon._

Wait?.… Mark pauses, eyes widening. "I'm going where?"

"Have a problem with that?"

"I can't go with you. I don't even know you. And then there's Haechan. I still need to find my friend."

The boy leans back against the metal frame of the bed. "You must have not realized, yet. I'm not asking you. I'm _telling_ you. Also, I'm not bringing you with me out of the goodness of my heart. I'm holding you captive."

"Captive..." Mark rolls the word over in his mouth. Maybe he should have listened to his instincts and just dashed. Is gaining more information really worth this?

"Don't look at me like that." The boy twists a frayed piece of rope around his fingers. "It's nothing personal. I just can't have you screwing things up for me even more than you already have. And don't worry about you're friend. I have my men searching the area for him. That is, "A devilish grin spreads on his child-like face. "If the lowlevel hasn't found him first."

"Lowlevel?"

"Let me give you a crash course on our situation, since you're obviously confused. You are currently in Dream Session X4 Level 3. And you have somehow landed yourself right in the middle of my _very_ meticulously thought-out mission. Because of that, my three months of planning have just been washed down the drain."

He turns to Mark with a tense smile. "I'm not at all upset by that, if you were curious." Mark wasn't, but he just nodded because it seemed like the right thing to do.

"There is currently one lowlevel monitoring these hallways."

"I'm sorry, you still didn't say what a lowlevel was."

The boy holds up a hand again. "Kindly, save your questions for the end"

He pulls the string in his hands taut. Mark's surprised it didn't snap. "All you need to know is that lowlevels are dangerous. Very. Dangerous. The mission was to capture it and return it to the inner dream circle, but this kind of thing requires perfect timing, and due to you and company, we no longer have that. So now I need to meet up with the rest of my squad and re-evaluate the situation. All while avoiding the lowlevel that's still lurking outside, of course."

He smirks, dusting off his shoulder. "But you're in luck because I'm the best when it comes to stealth. We'll have a pretty good chance of not dying if we do this right."

_Dying?_ Mark blinks frantically, but the boy doesn't even notice.

"Let's see." The boy scoots in closer and places his shiny notepad in between the two of them. He taps again, and the glow returns, then slides his finger across the surface. In a second, a map emerges, hovering over the notebook; its blue grid pattern casting a glow on Mark's shocked face.

"Wow!"

"Never seen a map before?"

"Not like this." The map glitches as Mark runs his fingers through it in awe.

The boy's jaw tightens. "You don't seem like one of _them_ , but you sure are odd."

Mark swallows. It was obvious that he's not really thinking out-loud and is rather giving Mark a subtle warning.

The boy clears his throat and turns his attention back down to the map. "Now, see that red dot." Mark's eyes follow the blinking crimson point as it travels down a blue hallway in front of him. "That's the lowlevel. This should be obvious, but we don't want to run into it. The green marker is location B, where we'll be meeting up with the rest of my team. It's roughly15 min North of here. The lowlevel is somewhat predictable and follows the same path through these hallways. This dot shows an estimate of it's current location." The red circle moves swiftly throughout the little doorways on the map. "So our best option is probably to tail the creature, follow close behind. It's a risky choice, but it's better to keep eyes on it, than to travel without knowing where it could be. Got all that?"

Mark nods, though the word dying still pops up in his head. Will it really be okay?

"Don't think too much. Just follow my lead. Oh and make sure to keep quiet. That thing has a keen sense of hearing." The map vanishes as the boy slips his notepad back into his bag. "We don't have much time before it comes back around, so it's best to get ready now."

"Ah yes...." Mark stumbles off the bed after the boy as he moves toward the door. But Mark's sneakers stop in their tracks when they hit the tile floor.

The boy looks back in confusion. "What's wrong?"

"It's just...I realized, that you never told me your name." Mark says.

"My name?" For the first time a genuine smile breaks the boy's cold expression. "I'm subject 011 though my friends just call me Captain. But you," He unclips his flashlight from his belt loop, tossing it to Mark who clumsily catches it "You can call me Renjun."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short Hiatus. I'm back and will start adhering to the schedule again.  
> But we finally got to meet Renjun!
> 
> Reference:  
> Chewing Gum M/V


End file.
